On Monday, a coalition of Austin environmentalists jumped into the fight over whether to build golf courses at Decker Lake. In a letter to the city, they point out that construction of the courses could “compromise water supply strategies recommended by the Water Resource Planning Task Force” in terms of using Decker Lake for water supply purposes. The letter goes on: “It will certainly send a contradictory message to our ratepayers and to LCRA [Lower Colorado River Authority] and co-users of the river. A typical 18-hole course in our climate can use a half-million gallons of water for irrigation in a single day.” Additionally, the letter notes that relationships that the city has built with LCRA, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality staff and downstream water customers could be strained by perceived city hypocrisy on the topic of water conservation. The letter, which asks City Council to vote against the golf courses, is signed by Bill Bunch, Christianne Castleberry, David Foster, Sharlene Leurig, Luke Metzger, Marisa Perales, Paul Robbins, Lauren Ross, Stefan Schuster, Roy Waley and Jennifer Walker.

Travis County Commissioners made the results of the Nov. 4 elections official Tuesday.  Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir, who oversees the Travis County Elections Office, read the results into the Commissioners Court record and reported that 41 percent of registered voters, about 270,000 people, cast ballots in Travis County. She also reminded the commissioners that with the Dec. 16 runoff for Austin City Council, the election is not over. She said the certified results would be delivered to the Texas Secretary of State’s office for official recording. A copy of the final report will be available on the elections website. Commissioners waived a precinct-by-precinct review of the votes and unanimously approved the election results.

After hearing concerns from the public, Police Chief Art Acevedo, Chief Animal Services Officer Abigail Smith and Parks and Recreation Director Sara Hensley, as well as Travis County Commissioners, City Council Member Chris Riley has offered some changes to the proposed policy for dealing with coyotes that menace people and pets in urban areas. Those changes were proposed within the last couple of days and are scheduled to appear as backup for today’s Council work session. We may hear a conversation on that topic anyway. There may also be a discussion about a proposed ordinance relating to rental property registration. Staff may not have understood exactly what Council wanted when it asked for that ordinance. They may have to go back to the drawing board. There may also be a conversation about the relationship between the city auditor and the Ethics Review Commission. One item that will likely not be discussed relates to the resolution sponsored by Council Members Kathie Tovo and Mike Martinez establishing a policy that would prevent recipients of city economic development incentives from protesting their property tax appraisals. A staff member said Monday that the item had been placed on the agenda prematurely, but should come back for the final meeting of this Council on Dec. 11. The agenda currently includes 181 items, any number of which could involve lengthy public hearings. At least one Council member has suggested privately that, before Thursday, they should schedule a meeting to continue Friday morning so that the public can expect that eventuality. Perhaps we will hear more about that at today’s work session.

Mayoral candidate Steve Adler will hold a news conference today to tout support from several African-American leaders in Austin. The event will feature Executive Director of the Austin African American Cultural Heritage District Lisa Byrd, Pastor Joseph Parker of David Chapel Missionary Church, Child Inc. Executive Director Albert Black, NAACP President Nelson Linder and others. The conference will take place at 2 p.m. at the George Washington Carver Library and Museum, 1165 Angelina St.

After four years, work will finally begin on the new Covert Park monument on Mount Bonnell today. The monument commemorates the Covert family’s donation of the park to the people of Travis County in 1939. The groundbreaking will take place at 8 a.m. at the foot of the steps on Mt. Bonnell Road, and an informal gathering recognizing the event will be attended by members of the Covert family, representatives of the Parks and Recreation Department and the West Point Society, who spearheaded the effort to install the new monument. The monument is being crafted and will be installed under the supervision of Gilbert Beall of Beall Memorial Art in Austin. Funding for the new marker has been provided by private donations to the Austin Parks Foundation. A news release about the event explained the timing: “We still hope to have the finished monument delivered, installed and dedicated by the end of the year,” said Fred Bothwell of the West Point Society of Central Texas, “but if that’s not possible, we wanted to use the groundbreaking to commemorate the actual 75th anniversary of the Covert family’s priceless gift to the people.”

Two City of Austin departments will participate Wednesday at GIS Day, with a full day of events and activities planned. GIS Day is an international forum for geographic information system users to share knowledge and applications of GIS technology. The event provides an opportunity for students, professionals, businesses and the public to discuss the impact GIS has on their daily lives. There will be professional development presentations, an Open Source GIS Workshop, an ArcGIS Collector App Workshop and exhibits, posters and a digital map gallery. The City of Austin and Austin Water Utility will each host an exhibit. The ATX GIS Day, hosted by the CenTexGIS user group, will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the LBJ School of Public Affairs on the University of Texas Campus. Attendees may register online.

Austin City Council Members Laura Morrison and Bill Spelman are set to help the Austin Monitor close out its 2014 Beers Brains and Betterment discussion series with what we’re calling an exit interview Tuesday evening. As always, the event is at the North Door, 501 Brushy St., where doors will open at 7 p.m. Tickets are free and can be found here. Also as always, we expect a candid and enlightening discussion.

Among the 182 items on City Council’s Thursday agenda are two that may have the collective impact of appointing current Deputy City Auditor Corrie Stokes to replace current City Auditor Ken Mory, who is leaving at the end of the year. Stokes has been with the city since 1999. The items come with three sponsors — Council Members Laura Morrison and Bill Spelman, as well as Mayor Pro Tem Sheryl Cole — so all Stokes will need is another vote to take the seat. We like her chances.

Another memorial has been placed for a fallen Austin Police Department officer. Officials with the Austin Police Officer Memorial Project placed a marker Friday for late APD Officer Leland Dale Anderson at the northeast corner of Congress Avenue and 8th Street, near where he died. Anderson was killed in the line of duty June 6, 1975, when a suspect he was attempting to arrest attacked and shot him with his own gun. The memorial project was created by Officer Jason Huskins in April 2008. The project consists of placing gray granite memorials at every location in Austin where an APD officer was killed in the line of duty. The memorials are 5 feet 4 inches tall, 20 inches wide and 6 inches thick. All memorials are being donated by Rockdale Memorials. Last week’s installation is the 17th marker placed as part of the project.

Next month, the city will take a closer look at its housing needs. To be exact, the city will dive into the 2014 Comprehensive Housing Market Study that was released this past summer. On Dec. 1 at 6 p.m., there will be a presentation at City Hall called “Austin’s Affordable Housing Needs and Impediments to Fair Housing Choice” that will address the market study and preliminary information about the impediments to fair housing in the city. At 8 p.m. the next night, Dec. 2, BBC Research & Consulting will go over the details of the study and overview of the report in a presentation and discussion titled, “Affordable Housing in Austin: Dig Deeper into the Data,” at LifeWorks, 835 N. Pleasant Valley Road. Both events are open to the public. The full study is available here.

In a story published Thursday in the Monitor, we wrote that Jeffrey Howard, the attorney for the Hideout Theatre, had notified a representative of the Aloft Austin & Element Hotel and the city by email that he would not oppose a code amendment to the Congress Avenue Overlay.  Howard contacted the Monitor Thursday to clarify that he told hotel representative Richard Suttle that he would not oppose the resolution initiating the Code Amendment or the postponement of the CURE zoning case. He said his client, the Hideout Theatre, has made no decision as to whether or not it will oppose or recommend changes to the actual code amendment as it goes through the city process.

Though there has been pointed criticism of (some of) their endorsements on the ANC message board, Thursday the Austin Neighborhoods Council stuck to their guns – and their endorsements –  and released a list of their endorsements for the is Dec. 16 runoff election. Their news release read: “BE IT ANNOUNCED THAT the Austin Neighborhoods Council Executive Committee reaffirms these endorsements, as previously endorsed by the Austin Neighborhoods Council General Membership in October 2014, for the Austin City Council runoff election: City Council District 1, Ora Houston; City Council District 4, Laura Pressley; City Council District 8, Ed Scruggs; and Mayor, Steve Adler.